Post subject: Re: Polish Kite Race Team in Dahab Reply with quoteZeeko wrote:With the ERA, I'm not scary about falling the kite in the water.

I was wondering if ERA works in very marginal winds. Now I know - thanks Nicholas I had short experience with this great system but in winds above 10knots.

Why other companies do not introduce the same safe system? I am going to fit the ERA line to my 16m Crossbow and do some tests. I guess it should work on any bow kite, correct?

Cheerio

Some put it, but didn't market it because they didn't introduce it first...At least 3 brands this year have it and one is a top5 one...Please note that the ERA to be the most efficient, need to be integrated in the design of the kite (strut location, reinforcements etc...). But in all ways, you can add it.

Watching my video I have realized that in the situation, when the kite was sitting on the tip, pumping the front lines by right hand and pumping left steering line would lift the kite faster out of the water. [quote]

Hi BraCuru,That's exactly what I found when experimenting at launching the Xbow in marginal wind, when there wasn't enough wind to just steer it off the water.

Had knee deep flat water and wind fairly steady. 2/3rds of the time the kite could stay at zenith, 1/3rd I had to work it. 13m 2009 Xbow, slightly under-inflated

When it was nose down I did the normal rear line tug, but sometimes it wouldn't move to the side without alternate jiggling of the front lines and rear line. That particularly seemed to free up the leading edge where it touched the water and helped the kite come up onto its side well downwind. (Next time I'll make sure the kite is inflated hard and use the pulling both rear lines but pulling one more than the other - as shown in the video)

Then as it moves round to the side of the window, to keep it upright at the correct angle, tugging the front lines leans it forward, pulling the back line leans it back.

Once its at the side of the window, very rarely was there enough wind to get it to just lift off.I had to jiggle the front lines and rear line to get it at an angle where it was tilted back about 10 degrees, and then alternately jiggle the front lines and the rear line to pump it into the air. Had to use the right amount of front lines versus rear line to keep it at the 10 degree angle while pumping it up.

I didn't move my feet but was standing, so it would maybe work the same if I had a big twintip on my feet, but might need a little more wind if I was floating without a board. There are a couple of unused screw holes near the rail outside the front strap on my raceboard, so I may be able to twist over one end of 2" webbing to make a strap loop I can get the toe of my front foot into and put my back foot against the rail to keep the board flat for launching. I'm only interested in using a raceboard as a light wind freeride board.

I'll see if I can find some method that works in less wind, but currently I think if the kite wont stay at zenith without working it I dont think I would be able to launch it in deep water without a board.

I dont understand how the ERA system would help the kite get off the water. I can see that it would help get the kite from the nose down position to up on its side, but I dont see how it would then help the kite lift off the water in any lighter of a wind than by using the pumping technique with the front lines and the rear line?

Last edited by ronnie on Fri Apr 29, 2011 12:35 pm, edited 3 times in total.

The race boards are a bit of a problem when relaunching. Because they are so wide, you cant really use the straps and the rails have too much volume anyway.Ideally you want to keep the board flat and use the resistance of the big fins to help relaunch the kite.Bracuru showed one way of doing that in his Crossbow relaunch video.

The board tended to want to lift the windward rail and dig in the leeward rail, so what I think is needed is a way of keeping the board from tipping and also keeping the centre of sideways resistance between your feet.

I have fitted a couple of extra straps on my raceboard to see if they can be used to make the board easy to use when relaunching. The strap is 1 1/2" wide, but I think 2" would be better. The strap can be heated to make it more solid around the screws and also to build a moulded shape into it.Haven't tried them on the water yet, but it feels like the boots will be a bit sticky when going in and more sticky when coming back out. I'll get some 40mm polythene layflat tubing and slide it over the strap, which will hopefully make it easy to get the foot in or out.Feels like as long as you can hook the strap with the base of your big toe, you can get enough leverage to keep the board flat when launching, so maybe smaller straps will work better. I think it will work, but will probably need a bit of refinement.

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